In April 2018, the Institute's legal staff worked with a diverse, cross-industry group of senior Federal Tax Committee and Tax Reform Task Force members to distill a responsive list of corporate tax guidance priorities in the wake of comprehensive tax reform.

In August 2017, a diverse working group comprising members of the Federal Tax Committee, U.S. International Committee, and Tax Reform Task Force reconvened to produce responsive comments to Notice 2017-36, One-Year Delay in the Application of § 1.385-2, on the final debt documentation regulations under section 385.

In July 2017, a diverse working group comprising members of the Federal Tax Committee, U.S. International Committee, and Tax Reform Task Force coalesced to produce responsive comments to Notice 2017-38, Implementation of Executive Order 13789 (Identifying and Reducing Tax Regulatory Burdens), on the final and temporary regulations under section 385.

On February 22-23, 2017, a delegation from Tax Executives Institute met with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, John Koskinen, and senior officials of the Internal Revenue Service and with the Treasury Department’s Tax Legislative Counsel, Tom West, and senior officials of Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy. The detailed agendas TEI submitted to the IRS and Treasury Department before the meetings are provided below.

On July 6, 2016, TEI submitted comments to the Internal Revenue Service regarding its proposed regulations for 26 U.S.C. § 385, which would give the IRS broad authority to recharacterize related-party debt to equity. We submitted these comments pursuant to the REG-108060-15 notice of proposed rulemaking. The comments discuss the negative macroeconomic effects the proposed regulations could have, the technical tax complexities they would create for corporate taxpayers, and suggested changes Treasury and IRS should make to the proposed regulations before finalizing them.

On June 14, 2016, members from Regions VI and VII enjoyed a wide-ranging and insightful discussion with local and national LB&I executives at the University of Illinois Business Center in Chicago, Illinois. Special congratulations and thanks go out to Region VI leadership, notably RVP Janet Kreilein, who led the planning and organization of this year’s event. LB&I’s recent restructuring and the reengineering of its examination process fostered a lively conversation benefitting both TEI members and LB&I officials.

On April 13, 2016, the IRS released a revised Form W-8BEN-E, which foreign entities must provide to withholding agents of their U.S.-sourced income under the FATCA regime. The form was last updated in 2014. The updated form includes ten new checkboxes in Part III, Question 14.b, for indicating which limitation-of-benefits treaty provision applies when claiming treaty benefits. Responses to this question are not intuitive, and the question may cause confusion, particularly if individuals charged with completing the form are not familiar with the reporting company's treaty positions.

On February 23-24, 2016, a delegation from Tax Executives Institute met with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, John Koskinen, and senior officials of the Internal Revenue Service and with the Treasury Department’s Assistant Secretary for Tax Policy, Mark Mazur, and senior officials of Treasury’s Office of Tax Policy.

The detailed agendas TEI submitted to the IRS and Treasury Department before the meetings are provided below.